Choosing religion.. choosing to abandon our race?

[technix]

Nothing major.. workin towards that 50. Picked up my first Krishnamurti book..

"Can we stop this misery at once, and not go one always being caught by the wave of confusion and sorrow? If you, seeing this social and econmoic confusion, this chaos, this misery, withdraw into what is called the religious life and abandon the world, you may feel that you are joining these great teachers (Buddah or Christ); but the world goes on with its chaos, its misery and destruction, the everlasting suffering of its rich and poor."

I had never thought of abandonment. It's only a slight spin on the atheist argument "bright religious minds are lost potential to the sciences if they are applied to religion", but none the less. ---> Had our race never developed religion, we would naturally be evolving by influence of sciences. If at some point in time, had a neighbor come and explain a religion that he had freshly converted to, then cancel all the science experiments for the rest of the week, I'd certainly feel a distinct sort of abandonment with respect to myself and my other science knowing neighbors.

Of course now, it couldn't be taken personally, as most present day situations others are born into the ideology, but do you think things similar to this ever happened? Were there anti-religious movements during the uprisings of religions?

[The Magic Pudding]

Were there anti-religious movements during the uprisings of religions?

There were atheists, but if they were to strident in their opinions they probably got stoned, burnt, buried alive, chopped into little pieces or some combination of these things.  You could check out the movie Agora.

[Crow]

Carvaka, Epicureanism, The Cult of Reason are the main movements of thought that I can think of that can be closely defined to what a modern atheist may consider there beliefs to be, but apart from a non-believer the views of atheists vary wildly so is quite hard to point a finger in history, especially when a lot of the oppression wasn't directed solely at a person who didn't believe in god but rather people who didn't believe in the god of the state (or mob). Its really thanks to the Age of Enlightenment that we are able to hold our views without being persecuted to the degree that happened in the past.

[technix]

Crow..
upon a very, verrrry, breif look up, i took the Age of E as people who believe in science soley, am i wrong?

this is very off topic, and i will probably post a thread of who i am speaking 0f, but have yiou ever heard of Eyedea? way intilleculal, way down to eart, way to reality. if you really want a discussion about Eyedea, or this song, PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE, OLKEEEEEEASE,!!!! EMAIL ME! @ evenson.t@hotmail.com    really though, if there is anyone who has any sort of comment, weather it be dick sucking or jocking, please lmk! luvUall

[Crow]

Crow..
upon a very, verrrry, breif look up, i took the Age of E as people who believe in science soley, am i wrong?

The Age of Enlightenment wasn't really one school of thought but lots of different schools of thought that questioned the traditional institutions, customs of society, and morals/ethics, that beforehand had gone unquestioned (if so, not to the same extent), it massively shaped and influenced society throughout the west and can be considered the foundations of modern society. The main underlying theme of all the different movements in this time was a very strong belief in rationality, science, and most importantly that everything was open to discussion.

When you say "Eyedea" do you mean the rapper. If so I had not heard of him before but have listened to many of the peers he is associated with such as slug, brother ali, murs, ect.

[DeterminedJuliet]

My major in University was in History (not that that makes me an expert or a "historian" by any means) and I'd have to agree, up until fairly recently religion was so dominant that you'd be hard pressed to find individuals or movements that would be close to what we would consider atheist. At least in any real identifiable sense. Even in the Enlightenment, you see the roots of modern science and secularism, but Christianity was still so pervasive that most of the scientific minds at the time would still identify (at least publicly) as Christian.

Before I gave up on religion entirely, I really liked the idea of "Christian humanism" (which you see a lot of around the Enlightenment) - it was pretty much our modern concepts of logic and rationality when it comes to morality with "oh yeah, and we believe in Jesus" tacked onto it. Eventually, I came to realize that the "oh yeah, we believe in Jesus" part was really un-necessary.

[Twentythree]

Religion has always been a method of population control. Kings demanded power and sought it through force. Religion suggested power and sought it through coercion. When the two combined there was almost no limit to their power and influence.